Harry Potter and the "Big Read" - Part 2 (long)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 83207

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "junediamanti" 
<june.diamanti at b...> wrote:

<heavily snipped>
  
June: 
> The programme was about "reading" as opposed to highbrow literary 
> punditry and his snobbish remarks were emotive and unnecessary.  I 
> felt this was just the usual stance that the so-called literary 
> community tends to take about the fantasy genre as a whole and not 
> just Rowling's work.  


<snipped again>


Geoff:
It doesn't surprise me. In Tom Shippey's "J R R Tolkien: Author of 
the Century" which is a superb critique of JRRT's work, he has a 
chapter "Afterword: the Followers and the Critics" which details the 
sort of flak he came under both when the book first appeared and 
later. Michael White (who is a respected newspaper journalist in the 
UK) published an excellent new biography helpfully entitled "Tolkien: 
a biography"(!) in 2001 and has a screamingly funny chapter on the 
reaction of the literati to JRRT and to the fact that LOTR topped the 
polls several times in the late 1990s.

Frankly, I must belong to the "Adult-slow" as one critic termed LOTR 
fans because I, like June, would far sooner curl up with Harry 
Potter, LOTR, Alan Garner's Brisingamen books or (shh) Winnie the 
Pooh rather than some boring run-of-the-mill kitchen sink stuff. 
Those of you who wade through my waffling will know that I am a great 
LOTR and HP fan. They are different in style etc. but evoke the same 
huge delight. To get a sensible view look at the interest shown in 
both authors' work on the CBBC (Children's BBC) website for example.

Geoff


> 
> 
> June
> 
> (I voted for LOTR;-) - Go fantasy genre!)

So did I. Go for it Dumbledalf and Gandore!
Geoff